


like-like romance

by kiden



Category: Agents of Cracked
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15546039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiden/pseuds/kiden
Summary: it's a very small fandom, i mean, let's admit we all read the fic no matter what the summary is. but it's during-show schmoop. honestly it's the only thing i know. (repost)





	like-like romance

It was only after Michael actually died twice that things started to get complicated. Sure, the actual meat of the story was a little screwy, but in the end it all made sense. Whenever Daniel tried to suss out the plot holes he came up empty, every single time. That certainly didn’t help him understand how he was supposed to deal with any of it, but at least his brain wasn’t scrambling to make sense of what had happened. There was a sad bit of comfort in that, but it wasn’t worth very much.

Twice he had to scrub Michael’s blood off his face, and there didn’t seem to be enough toothpaste or liquor in the world to get the taste of it out of his mouth. Michael’s head had been there seenand then gone, and then back again like it was trying to convince Daniel he hadn’t seen what he absolutely, without a doubt knew he did. Twice. He’d seen it twice, and couldn’t stop seeing it every time he closed his eyes.

Not that he was traumatized. Well, maybe he was a little, but Michael was fine and he was fine and everyone was fine. Except T-Bone. And although that was sad, he’d kind of deserved to die, so Daniel wasn’t too torn up over it.

Okay, so Daniel didn’t really understand why he’d done it. After Michael’s head exploded for the second time, after they situated his brace and Daniel had gotten all the blood he could off himself, he’d gone home and changed his locks back. It had been his failsafe T-Bone got a hold of the first time and he was directly responsible for the second incident. Guilt was a pretty good motivator for the majority of Daniel’s decisions. Plus, as happy as Daniel had been to find him, it sucked seeing Michael living on the beach, looking even less put together than usual and then finding out he’d done it because of some misplaced desire to protect him. Tape guy. T-Bone. Whoever Michael thought he was, he’d still done it for Daniel.

Why all of that translated into Daniel being strangely fine with the idea of Michael sneaking around his apartment, coming and going as he pleased, he honestly had no idea. But the idea of locking him out somehow seemed wrong. It hadn’t bothered him too much before, and it didn’t seem likely it would start anytime soon. Which was also deeply unsettling.

And shit was complicated, and Daniel couldn’t stop thinking about it, because nothing made any sense. Not Michael’s hot and cold behavior, and especially not his exploding head.

He actually had the decency to look caught when he was. This hadn’t been Daniel’s plan from the beginning, he didn’t even tell Michael he’d changed the locks back and had no reason to think he’d try coming around so soon. It was only a few days since Michael had his brace removed, and his head wobbled slightly as he chuckled nervously. He still closed the door behind him, sidestepping further into the apartment with his eyes locked on Daniel’s.

“Hey, Dan,” he said, as he locked the door and shook off his hoodie, hanging it next to Daniel’s. “How are you feeling?”

“Confused?”

Dan narrowed his eyes as he watched Michael maneuver around his kitchen without hesitation. He grabbed the bottle of whiskey Dan kept in the cabinet under his microwave, the glasses above the sink, and when he went for the ice he knew how the handle stuck, and just the right way to shake it loose.

It wasn’t in him to ask how Michael was so familiar with his apartment, he already knew and didn’t want to hear him say it. Why? was probably a better question, but Daniel wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that either. It would hurt or wouldn’t hurt at all, and he didn’t have the wherewithal to deal with any outcome.

So Michael plopped down on the couch next to him and they drank instead. Drank until Daniel felt that sweet numbness in his limbs, moving slowly like his apartment was filled with water, and Michael’s shoulder was pressed against his, warm and boney. It surprised him how much he’d missed him. Admittedly, part of his distress was that he truly hadn’t believed Michael was capable of what he’d fessed up too - and he was right about that - but there was, of course, more to it. Disbelief wasn’t the kind of thing that dragged a guy to the ocean at dawn with a half-bottle of Jameson in him. That was something else entirely.

Grief was an asshole of a thing. Could crawl right to the deepest, most hidden parts and set them afire. And now that Daniel had the thing he’d lost back, and back again and again, he had no idea what to do with all the shit he’d learned about himself. Nothing was really that different, but it was, and no matter how hard he thought about it, Daniel wasn’t sure how to get to the way things had been before. Or if he wanted to. He’d changed his locks back, after all.

Michael reached for the whiskey and poured more into both their glasses. He drank what he’d given himself and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, and Daniel watched his index finger circle around the wet rim of the empty glass. If Michael was drunk, Daniel couldn’t tell, but it didn’t really matter. In the low light of his apartment, the sharp features of his face seemed softer, and Daniel’s eyes caught on the high curve of his left cheekbone and he thought about punching him.

As if he could hear Daniel’s thoughts - and who the fuck knew? maybe he could, it was impossible to rule anything out now - Michael turned his head slightly towards him.

“Are you okay?” he asked and sounded as if he genuinely cared about the answer.

“I don’t know,” Dan said and took a drink. “I don’t know how to answer that. Do you have a scale I can use? Some kind of metering system?”

The corner of Michael’s mouth twitched like he’d thought about laughing but couldn’t force it out, and Daniel realized he wanted to kiss him. Just there, where his laughter started. He downed the rest of his drink and refilled his glass.

“Your head exploded. Twice.”

Michael hummed in agreement and pitched to his side, his arm falling between Dan’s knees. Instead of righting himself, Michael put his hand on Daniel’s shin and rubbed his fingers up and down the bone, over his pajamas.

“What are you doing?” Daniel whispered, unable to trust himself to speak any louder. He would have to kill himself if his voice squeaked in front of Michael just then.

“Drinking with my very good friend, Tape Guy.”

How much of every day Michael was true, Daniel wasn’t sure he’d ever know. Was it a show? A gag? He seemed to know exactly who Daniel was, even when he didn’t. And secretly, having only recently admitted it to himself, sometimes Daniel hoped it was a coping mechanism. Not much in Michael’s life seemed real, and wouldn’t it be something if Daniel was the one thing that was. It was a stupid thing to want, but he wanted it anyway.

“Okay.”

Daniel reached down to cover Michael’s hand with his own, and he twisted their fingers together in an unorganized mess and brought their joined hands to his thigh. He made no move to pull away, not a single sound of protest or confusion. Face still turned away, Daniel couldn’t gage what Michael was thinking but holding his hand felt like he was standing at the edge of what he thought was stream but turned out to be an ocean. Something deep and wide and dark. Undiscovered.

It was terrifying and Daniel knew he wanted to ignore it for as long as he could. For as long as Michael let him. He couldn’t afford for Michael to have unknown depths right now. Not when he already sort of wanted to kiss him, and protect him, and never, ever lose him again. It was against his own self-interest and preservation to stick by Michael’s side and want him so much. It was out of character and scared the fuck out of him.

“Are you okay? How’s your head?”

His thumb was kneading the valleys between Michael’s knuckles. Daniel couldn’t stop even if he wanted to.

Michael turned towards him, inadvertently pulling his hand away to Daniel’s distress, and said, “Do you want to fuck?”

The question should have surprised him, but Daniel couldn’t muster the feeling. He rearranged himself to sit cross-legged then leaned heavily on his knees. “Yeah,” he nodded. His right hand wandered to Michael’s side and he brushed a few fingers along where his ribs were, just because he thought about it. “But we’re not going to.”

“Yeah,” Michael said and flopped backward onto the couch. He leaned into Daniel again, resting his head against him. “Figured I’d ask. Felt like we were having a moment, Dan.”

“We were.”

“What about handjobs? Can we do those?”

A breathy laugh fell out of Daniel without his permission, and he shook his head even as he leaned back, wrapping his arm around Michael’s shoulders and they settled together more comfortably.

“That’s not going to happen.”

Hand on Daniel’s knee, he watched Michael pick lint off his pajama bottoms. It was an absolutely nothing thing he was doing, but coupled with the drinks and their proximity and Michael’s advances, Daniel felt like he could melt off the couch and through the floor. The feeling Michael was bringing out in him was dangerous. The kind of thing that made him immediately question a thirty seconds previous decision to say ‘no’ to him. And an even earlier decision of not wading into oceans he wasn’t prepared to swim in.

He could be reckless if he wanted to, couldn’t he? Michael did things all the time without thinking about them, and he’d managed to make it this far even with a few deaths under his belt. The only thing really stopping him was himself, and his dedication to taking himself out of situations where a good outcome wasn’t guaranteed. Safety was a nice thing, but so far it hadn’t helped Daniel find any way to actually be happy. Big risks yielded big rewards. Doing nothing accomplished only that.

“We were having a moment,” Daniel said thoughtfully. He brought his hand up to Michael’s head and pulled softly on his hair.

“Yep.”

Maybe it wouldn’t mean anything. For either of them. All of Daniel’s previous experience with Michael suggested that in the morning he wouldn’t even remember it. Or he would, but wouldn’t recall it had been with Daniel. He’d just blend in with the faceless crowd in Michael’s memory. But maybe he would remember it had been Daniel he was with, and he’d remember how they were cuddled up on his couch for hours beforehand, and the uncommonly tender way they’d handled each other. All of which was easier in the dark with a bottle of whiskey put away between them.

“Okay.” Daniel turned his head to press his mouth to the top of Michael’s head, and whispered, “Okay. We can. I want to.”

Michael’s fingers curled into Daniel’s knee, almost painfully, and he froze.

“God, you were kidding? You were kidding. I -.”

“No!” Michael yelped, turning so fast in Daniel’s arms he almost fell off the couch. “Dan - I wasn’t -.” He grabbed Daniel hard by the back of the neck, forcing him to meet his eyes. “I seriously want to fuck you, Dan.”

All his breath left on one rough exhale, and Michael inched a little closer, licking his lips. Michael’s other hand found Daniel’s waist, his thumb pushing up under his shirt to touch his bare skin, and Daniel remembered how to breath. Or pant. He was panting already, nervous and drunk and suddenly very, very eager.

“You’re not joking? You’re not teasing me?” Michael asked, his eyes darting all over Daniel’s face.

“I missed you,” he told Michael. “I - do we have to talk about it? I don’t want to talk about it.”

Michael shook his head frantically and pulled Daniel closer to kiss him. Their lips met sweetly at first, but Michael pushed into his mouth hungrily, deepening the kiss until Daniel moaned.

“Fuck, fuck,” Michael said at the sound Dan made. He pressed their foreheads together, his thumb stroking the back of Daniel’s neck as they swayed slightly.

Daniel could be reckless. He wanted to be. “Let's go to bed, Mike.”

It didn't matter at the moment why Michael wanted this. Why did Michael ever want anything? Maybe it would matter in the morning and maybe the reason would break Dan’s heart or change his life. It wasn't even clear which one he should hope for. Michael was difficult and flighty and drove Daniel crazy on his best days.

But if it was a terrible idea it was Dan’s to make and he'd own it. It was difficult to imagine it was though, with the way Michael was kissing him and touching him and the desperate, gleeful noises he was making against Daniel's mouth.

“Seriously,” Dan whispered, holding on tight around Michael’s shoulders. “Seriously, right now, take me to bed. I know you know where it is.”

Michael groaned and jumped up, manhandling Daniel to his feet and then moving in to keep kissing him. His hands slipped down the back of Dan’s pajamas and squeezed his ass, making him jolt forward with a surprised laugh.

Pressed together, he could feel Michael’s weird, hard dick against his belly.

“So many times,” Michael murmured deliriously, walking Dan backward towards the bedroom. “So many nights, I -.”

Michael never finished the thought; Daniel hadn't let him, didn't want to know what the rest of the sentence would have been. Leaving it incomplete, he could imagine it was anything he wanted it to be.

The next morning things were still very complicated, but no more so than they'd been the day before. Daniel woke up sore and tired and happy. Happier than he'd ever felt, ever, in his entire life. And when he rolled over Michael was still there, face squished into the pillow and drooling as he slept.

Daniel scooted closer to him and pressed a kiss to his bare shoulder, resting his hand on the small of Michael's back. He made a small, sweet sound and reached out blindly to smush his hand down Daniel’s face.

“Go back to sleep,” he whined.

“I will,” Daniel laughed softly. “Just -.” He swooped in and kissed Michael’s mouth, then bumped their noses together gently.

The way Michael smiled was like all the very best sunny days when the skies are so clear you can see in every direction forever.

Michael was definitely going to fuck this up. But the chance of that happening was probably equal to Daniel himself being the one to wreck it. They really weren't bad odds at all.

Cracking open one eye, Michael shoved Daniel back down into the bed and wrapped his arm around him, dragging him closer. It was weird, but not as weird as Daniel would've imagined to cuddle up naked with Michael underneath a sheet. The feel of his body made an already familiar warmth unfold in his belly, and he flushed hot remembering what they'd done just a few hours before. Daniel honestly hadn't known anything could feel so good, that anyone could ever make him feel like that or would want to.

And Jesus, to be so very, very talented at it. If Michael's terrifyingly amazing exploding head trick wasn't proof enough he was magic, Daniel now had three very illuminating experiences with his dick and he was sure of it.

“I can feel you thinking and I hate it,” Michael complained, blowing a raspberry on Daniel’s chest. “It's keeping me awake.”

“Sorry,” Daniel said sheepishly, rubbing his palm up and down Michael's arm.

“I'm not going to leave if you go back to sleep,” Michael huffed. “I swear.”

Daniel made a high-pitched, unconvincing scoffing sound and wanted to deny he'd been thinking it, but Michael opened both his eyes to stare at him and all his words disappeared in his mouth.

“I need your help.” Michael pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

“With?”

“Gotta go around town and buy up a bunch of Sudafed.”

“No,” Daniel laughed, and continued to do so even when Michael started kissing him. “No fucking way.”

“Daniel,” he whined, his voice half a song.

“I'm not helping you cook meth,” he said, smacking the back of Michael's head.

“Fine,” Michael sighed and gathered Dan just a little closer. “Maybe it's for the best. If I get busted who's gonna bake me a cake with a chainsaw in it.”

“That's not how that works.”

“Who's gonna visit me in the bang trailer?”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Yeah?” Michael said, his eyes wide and full of light. “This is, uh?”

“Oh, not if you don't want -.”

“I do,” he smiled. A real, tender smile that Daniel had never seen before. Even better than his clear, sunny days one. “Really for real do, Dan. But don't try to get in the way of my new enterprise. You're too pretty to be involved in the drug business.”

“If you don't cook and deal meth, I'll blow you? Right now.

“I have no idea what ‘meth’ is, but it's one letter away from ‘math’ and I don't care for it. I have no interest.” Daniel almost laughed, but Michael pushed two fingers into his mouth and said, “Let’s see what we got here. Gotta test your gag reflex.”

Daniel pushed Michael away, but not before nipping his fingers just a little. It drew an unexpected moan out of the both of them when he soothed the bite with his tongue.

“We’re gonna be fine, Dan,” Michael said unexpectedly and cupped Daniel's jaw. “And if we're not, screw it, we just gotta try harder.”

There was a good chance all of this would fly out of Michael's head as soon as he climbed out of Daniel's bed, but he realized that would be okay if it happened. He wasn't going anywhere and neither was Michael, and they had a really long time in front of them to figure it out.

“Why are you trying to talk to me when I'm offering to suck your dick?”

“Romance!” Michael cried, grinning wildly as he rolled on top of Dan, taking his mouth in a happy kiss. “We’re the greatest like-like story ever told.”

Daniel held Michael's face between his hands and felt more affection for him than he'd ever thought possible. Michael's unknown depths didn't look so scary anymore. At least some of them were kind of sweet. “Yeah,” he agreed, “maybe we are.”


End file.
